E-Agriculture Strategy for Digital Transformation

Scaling Up innovations to digitally transform Agriculture sector

Montevideo, Uruguay
5 August 2019
1. ITU-D Overview

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 ITU: Mission and Goals

• United Nations Specialized Agency for Telecommunications/Information

and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

• ITU aims at international cooperation among all its Member States for
the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds.

• ITU fosters international cooperation and solidarity in the delivery of

technical assistance and to upgrade the telecommunication/ICT
infrastructure and services.

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ITU Governance & Structure

Deputy Secretary-General

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ITU Membership

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ITU’s Global/Regional Presence

5 regional offices
8 area offices
HQs in Geneva
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 ITU Development Sector (ITU-D)
Mission:
To foster international cooperation and solidarity in the delivery of technical assistance and to upgrade the
telecommunication/ICT infrastructure and services in developing countries.

Goals:
• To promote the availability of infrastructure and foster an enabling environment for telecommunication/ICT
infrastructure development and its use in a safe and secure manner.
• To provide assistance to developing countries in bridging the digital divide by achieving broader
telecommunication/ICT-enabled socio-economic development.
• To expand the benefits of the information society to the membership in cooperation with public and private
stakeholders, and to promote the integration of the use of telecommunications/ICTs into the broader economy and
society as drivers of development, innovation, well-being, growth and productivity globally.

ITU-D as Partner:
• Executing agency for project implementation and expert assistance to countries;
• Neutral broker between government and industry;
• Catalyst for multi-stakeholder partnerships. 7
 ITU-D: Key Areas of Actions

Climate change Digital Inclusion ICT Applications

Innovation Cyber Security Capacity Building

Technology & Network Development Regulatory & Market Environment

Emergency Telecommunication Spectrum Management & Broadcasting

Least Developed Countries & SIDS ICT Statistics & Indicators

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 ITU-D Events application
 All relevant information and
documents related to the
major upcoming events of
the Development Sector of
ITU in mobile-friendly format
 Browsing and searching
through list of participants
and contacting them without
sharing email addresses
 Access to ITU’s official social
media accounts including
integrated photos, videos and
Tweets
 All ITU-D Publications, of
which most are available for
direct free download
 The UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)

www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Conferences/TDAG/PublishingImages/ITU-D_Events/ITUD_Events_poster.png
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2. Our Division’s Activities
for e-Agriculture

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 ICT Applications & Services (Our divion)

ICT Applications as a mean to digitally transform people’s lives

Agriculture

Energy Education

Cross-sectors
Health Governance

Financial
services
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Many Roles of ICT in Agriculture

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 Some Challenges of introducing ICTs into
Agriculture
• Expensive initial costs of machines and
Gov/org cannot Difficult to monitor,
address all SDG manage and aggregate
devices using ICT
Duplication
Redundancy Inability to consider
user journey • Lack of knowledge or knowhow on the
Re-invention of the
Limited system
latest technologies
Wheel
impact

• Need to cultivate ICT literacy of

High-cost of No economies
Scaling up of scale farmers

Non-interoperable
E-Agriculture
Applications Partial view of • Weak fundamental ICT infrastructure
Limited/no re-use
user’s needs
in a country (mobile and internet)
No building on each Uncoordinated “Solution” mindset
other capabilites investments No System thinking
ICT is adhoc and not
• Lack of the whole country vision in
strategic tool agriculture and ICT

• Need to set an appropriate regulatory

policy and strategy
Source: FAO, ITU
etc.
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 Digital Transformation Process by ICT
Applications
1．Strategy
2. Architecture 3. Implementation 4. Evaluation
Development

• mHealth Assessment
Framework
• mDiabetes evaluation
• Digital Identity
in Senegal
• ICT4SDG Common • Smart Villages • mTobacco Cessation
Platform • Blockchain for traceability evaluation in India
• E-Agriculture Strategies • eGov EA guide • E-Agriculture in PNG
• E-Health Strategies • Digital Health • mHealth for NCD
• Smart Learning Policies Enterprise Architecture • EU mHealth Hub
• E-Gov Master Plan Guide
• Digital Health Africa
Initiative
• Digital Agriculture/Health Training Workshops
• Online Learning Digital Agriculture/Health Platform
5. Capacity Building • Best practices reports on ICT Applications
e.g., e-Agriculture in Action, Digital Health for NCD, Women and Children Health
• Hackathons e.g., HackagainstHunger, Hack for livelihoods and lifelong learning
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 E-Agriculture Strategy Guide

• The e-Agriculture Strategy Guide

was published by FAO and ITU

Available at:
http://www.fao.org/documents/car
d/en/c/24f624ea-7891-45e8-9b24-
66cbf13f004d/
https://www.itu.int/pub/D-STR-
E_AGRICULT.01-2016

Source: FAO, ITU

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 FAO-ITU technical assistance to countries
in developing National E-Agriculture Strategy

2015-2016: Bhutan and Sri Lanka

2016: Lao PDR ICT Masterplan

2016-2017: Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

2017: Myanmar (national agriculture extension modernization

based on this framework)

2017-2018: Afghanistan

2019-: Benin, Pakistan, Mongolia, Caribbean (Regional),……

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 Why a National E-Agriculture Strategy

• Many diverse, small scale e-Agriculture applications,

unable to communicate and share data
• Barriers to scale up to support a larger user base
• Difficult for decision makers to understand the current agriculture situation,
for policy and planning
• Duplication of efforts, leading to waste and inability to integrate solutions

 Guidance for a National Strategy Development

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 Developing National E-Agriculture Strategy

• A National E-agriculture Strategy is a holistic approach to realize e-Agriculture

as an output of comprehensive process through multi-stakeholder consultation

Source: FAO, ITU

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 Concept of Common Digital Platform
(Architecture)

Digital Platform
Digital Digital
Agriculture Education
Applications Terminology Applications
Services
Shared
Security
Repositories

Analysis Unique ID
Digital Digital
Health Information
Government
Workflow and
Applications Mediation Algorithm
Applications
Services Services

• Common digital platform can connect to any digital applications

from different projects based on the principle of “develop once, use across the enterprise”
to avoid duplication of efforts and works
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Smart SDG village Model
(Implementation)

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 From Our website
(e-Agriculture Activities)
e-Agriculture

https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/ICT-Applications/Pages/
e-agriculture.aspx
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 Thank you !

ICT App. tools

and Publications

Just released
in July 2019

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